Three restaurants open, close or move around Tuscaloosa

Steamers getting second location; Tin Top now downtown; resurrection over for The Globe

Associate manager Robert Bishop, left, talks with Heath Wyatt, one of the partners of the new Steamers on the Strip, on Tuesday. The second Steamers location, on University Boulevard, will officially open at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Steamers on the Strip will be open every day for lunch and dinner.

Michelle Lepianka Carter | The Tuscaloosa News

By Patrick RupinskiBusiness Editor

Published: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 at 11:00 p.m.

Last Modified: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 at 11:42 p.m.

Steamers, a longtime Tuscaloosa fresh seafood restaurant, is opening a second location this morning — this time on the Strip.

Associate manager Robert Bishop, left, talks with Heath Wyatt, one of the partners of the new Steamers on the Strip, on Tuesday. The second Steamers location, on University Boulevard, will officially open at 11 a.m. Wednesday. Steamers on the Strip will be open every day for lunch and dinner.

Michelle Lepianka Carter | The Tuscaloosa News

Meanwhile the Tin Top, another restaurant known for its Gulf seafood and in-house aged steaks, has moved from north of the river to downtown Tuscaloosa.

And a third locally owned restaurant, The Globe, has closed after a short-lived resurrection in Temerson Square.

Steamers

Steamers has gone into the old Crimson Tavern location on University Boulevard.

Heath Wyatt and his twin brother Keith, who own and operate the Steamers on Hargrove Road, have partnered with Neal and Amy Mullins, who owned and operated the Crimson Tavern.

“We have brought our concept in as a management company,” Heath Wyatt said Tuesday as he and a crew readied the restaurant for its 11 a.m. opening today.

The second Steamers' decor includes mounted deep-sea fish like the original Steamers but in a bow to the Crimson Tide, its walls will eventually be covered with about 400 framed covers of UA football programs, dating back to the 1930s.

The programs were collected by Neal Mullins, said his wife Amy Mullins who helped hang and lock into place some of the framed programs on Tuesday.

“Fans will be able to reminisce and talk about the games,” Heath Wyatt said.

Eventually, all the programs will be posted on Steamers' website with information about the games for people who want to learn more, he said.

Steamers, which features fresh seafood, was started on 15th Street in 1996 by the Wyatt brothers and their parents, Bobby and Kathy Wyatt. The restaurant moved to Hargrove Road in 2001 and five years later, it moved to a newly built restaurant along the Black Warrior River on Bridge Street in Northport.

The Wyatts sold that restaurant to Winzell's Oyster House in 2009 and moved on to other business ventures.

In 2011, they reopened Steamers as a fresh seafood market that also offered some prepared carry-out items like gumbo and steamed shellfish. That Steamers was located in a small building along the river at the end of Greensboro Avenue. That market is now closed.

In 2012, the old Steamers location on Hargrove Road became vacant and the Wyatt Brothers decided to return there with a full-fledged Steamers restaurant and oyster bar.

Heath Wyatt said the Steamers on the Strip will feature the same fresh seafood brought in from Bayou La Batre as the Hargrove location. The only difference is it won't have an oyster bar.

The newest Steamers will have indoor and outdoor seating for about 120 people, making it a little smaller than the Hargrove Road restaurant.

“One of the main reasons we were attracted to this area is we built a big student following when we had our crawfish boil,” Heath Wyatt said. “I think we are the only seafood place on the Strip so it should be popular with the students.”

Steamers will be open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and will stay open later on Fridays and Saturdays. On Sundays, it will be open from 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.

Tin Top

In downtown Tuscaloosa, Tin Top quietly opened late last week in the renovated Temerson Building, which formerly housed Veranda Home & Garden Furniture.

Bob and Patty Hallmark, who own the original Tin Top restaurant in Bon Secur on the Alabama Gulf Coast, joined a group of investors who bought the building last year.

The Hallmarks had opened a Tin Top in Tuscaloosa a few years ago at the Shops of Lake Tuscaloosa on Rice Mine Road. That restaurant has closed with the opening of the new restaurant.

Bob Hallmark said Tuesday he has delayed making a major announcement on the opening until the restaurant gets its liquor license transferred from its former location. The item is on the City Council's agenda this coming Tuesday and he said he hopes to be serving beer, wine and mixed drinks come next Wednesday.

The Tin Top occupies the first floor and mezzanine of the Temerson Building. The top floor remains vacant but there has been discussions of putting offices there, Hallmark said. The basement could be used for a banquet hall or bar, he said.

As for the Tin Top, “it was a work in progress for more than a year,” he said.

Interior construction took three to four months with an eye to keeping the building's historic appearance, Hallmark said.

Construction of the Temerson Building started in the early 1940s but was halted when the U.S. entered World War II. It was finished in 1947 after the Cold War started and was built as one of the city's first civil defense shelters that could withstand a bomb blast.

The Tin Top has about 115 employees and is open daily for lunch and dinner. Its hours are 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays and from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sundays.

The Globe

As for The Globe, it's closed for good, said owner and chef Jeff Wilson.

Wilson originally opened The Globe in downtown Northport in 1992. He closed the restaurant in 2009, a victim of the economic downturn, which resulted in fewer people dining out.

In March, he brought The Globe back to life in the former Carmelo Cafe location on 23rd Avenue in the Temerson Square area. The venture was short-lived.

“There's just no capital to keep going,” Wilson said Tuesday. “We have had four really bad weekends waiting for the first (UA football) home opener.

“I am at a loss to why it has happened. I just don't have the resources to wait out the economy again.”

Wilson said he has no plans to try to revive The Globe again and said as of Tuesday, he is job hunting.

Patrick Rupinski can be reached at patrick.rupinski@tuscaloosanews.com or 205-722-0213.

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